Forest@ - Rivista di Selvicoltura ed Ecologia Forestale, 2020
Illegal logging and related illegal timber trade are currently recognized as one of the world's m... more Illegal logging and related illegal timber trade are currently recognized as one of the world's most pressing environmental problems. In several timber-exporting countries most of the trees are illegally cut, resulting in significant losses of incomes and irreversible damage to forests. In the last years several laws and regulations have been introduced to tackle global illegal trade of wood, such as the 2008 amendment to the US Lacey act, or the European Timber Regulation (EUTR). Professionals of the timber sector are therefore more and more called to a better knowledge of the material they are dealing with, and the identification of the wood species is one of the crucial steps necessary to verify timber legality. In this paper we introduce some recently developed tools aimed at facilitating non-experts to effectively identify wood through macroscopic analysis and possibly find substitutes for woods of uncertain legality.
Wood waste is a material that can be upgraded from an energy point of view. The purpose of this s... more Wood waste is a material that can be upgraded from an energy point of view. The purpose of this systematic review is to analysed the energetic characterisation of glued wood waste, in view of their use in combustion plants. To assess the compatibility of glued wood wastes combustion with sustainable environmental impacts, the main studies regarding their emissions during combustion process are reported. The results of the research showed a wide distribution concerning the emissions of the main pollutants. Carbon monoxide emissions, one of the main greenhouse gases, are considerably reduced by the use of efficient plants though the presence of adhesives does not affect CO emissions. The use of nitrogen-based glues instead negatively influences the emissions related to another group of monitored pollutants, the NO x. As far as SO x is concerned, emissions are low, favoured both by the low percentage of sulphur in woody biomass and by the non-use of sulphur-based treatments. The quality of combustion process also influences the type of produced emissions. The incomplete combustion leads to the formation of harmful compounds to the environment and to humans. The emissions of PAHs, dioxins and PCBs are generally higher for biomass than fossil fuels, but the presence of adhesives does not affect the emissions of these compounds. This indicates that, under optimal combustion conditions and eventually by mixing glued and virgin wood waste, the wood waste containing adhesives could represent an additional source of biomass for energy production.
The sensitivity and interest toward well-being and health inside work and living environments is ... more The sensitivity and interest toward well-being and health inside work and living environments is constantly growing. Wood is perceived as a natural material by people and its presence in a room generally induces beneficial effects on human beings. In this research, two real-sized identical wood and not-wood rooms have been built to study the psychological effects of a wooden indoor environment on attention recovery and restorativeness. After a multisensory evaluation of different kind of materials used in housing, participants were asked to evaluate the two rooms and then to perform an attention test two times, interspersed with a pause in one of the two rooms. The results show that wood samples are more appreciated than all other materials and that a wood environment induces an attentional resources’ recovery. These findings bring new insights in the interaction between human beings and indoor environments. This new knowledge should be taken into account in the design or renovation...
The bog oak is a particular archeobotanical oak wood, which is formed after hundreds of years in ... more The bog oak is a particular archeobotanical oak wood, which is formed after hundreds of years in anoxia and wet conditions. Following the persistence of oak wood for long periods in conditions of humidity and anoxia, its colour turns to dark brown/black, and its density and mechanical strength, in particular its hardness, increase. Wet and anoxic environments are, for example, the peat bogs of Northern Europe, and the muddy beds of rivers. In Italy, old oak trunks with a characteristic charred appearance emerge periodically during the cleaning of riverbeds. This paper presents the characterization of a bog oak log found in Zero river in the Veneto countryside. The trunk has been dated back to around 400 CE, using radiocarbon dating technique. The log is bark-free, and the black and cracked external surface has a charred appearance. On the inside, underneath the more weathered layer, the wood appears intact, without signs of apparent degradation, carbon black in colour. Towards the internal parts of the trunk, the colour of the intact wood goes from black to light brown. The physical characterization (basic density, shrinkage and maximum water content) indicates that degradation phenomena are also present in the apparently intact wood. Indeed, the bog oak linear shrinkage is more than double that of recent oak wood. Microscopic analysis clearly highlighted bacterial degradation. From the analysis of the ash content, it seems that the density increase of the apparently intact areas is due to the presence of inorganic material.
Nel corso del restauro della Sinagoga di Padova sono stati caratterizzati dei campioni lignei, id... more Nel corso del restauro della Sinagoga di Padova sono stati caratterizzati dei campioni lignei, identificando la specie legnosa; inoltre è stata datata una trave lignea strutturale
In accordance with sustainable economic and social development, Europe supports the use of energy... more In accordance with sustainable economic and social development, Europe supports the use of energy from renewable sources to decrease the use of fossil fuels. Among renewable energy sources, wood, especially production wood waste from the supply chain, represents an exploitable source in line with a circular economy development. In this context, processing of residues produced by wood companies becomes an important resource. This work deals with the possible energy recovery of glued wood wastes. Two solid biofuels were produced from glued wood wastes: pellets and briquettes. They have been produced in collaboration with a local company and analyzed according to the applicable EN ISO international standards. The results were compared with the limits imposed by the standards in order to identify their quality class and their applicability to the current market. The amount of adhesive present in the wood wastes does not negatively affect the intrinsic characteristics of the material tha...
This paper reports the results of the characterization of a subfossil trunk found buried in the m... more This paper reports the results of the characterization of a subfossil trunk found buried in the mud of the Piavon canal, at Chiarano (TV), when dredging took place in 2008. The trunk, of imposing dimensions, lacking branches and bark, has a black, deeply cracked and strongly deteriorated outer surface with a carbonized appearance, while internally it has the typical blackish colour of the so-called drowned oak. The studies have demonstrated that it is a tree belonging to the genus Quercus, common oak or sessile oak, that may have been felled between the end of the 12 th and early 14 th century A.D.. Determination of the MWC and residual basic density indicate that the deterioration decreases from the outside inwards; the ash content is high externally and diminishes moving toward the centre. Nowadays, the Piavon is an irrigation canal, but in Venetian times it was navigable and was used for the transport of goods and timber. There were extensive woodlands of common oak and sessile o...
Capitolo 1 di "I salici in selvicoltura, in agricoltura e nella tutela del paesaggio", ... more Capitolo 1 di "I salici in selvicoltura, in agricoltura e nella tutela del paesaggio", a cura di Paolo Paiero; testi di Cristian Bolzonella, Teresa Cerrillo, Rossella Ghisi, Margherita Lucchin, Mario Malagoli, Luigi Masutti, Paolo Paiero, Virginia Rossignolo, Stefano Tasinazzo, Tiziana Urso. Atti della giornata di studio tenutasi nella sede dell'Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali l'8 novembre 2007 Da alcuni anni a questa parte e in costante aumento la richiesta di materiale vivaistico destinato ad usi multipli (assortimenti legnosi, giardinaggio, ripristini ambientali, ecc.), per interventi dunque che non riguardano solo i classici rimboschimenti,ma anche la ricostruzione di cenosi particolari quali i boschi ripariali, l’edificazione di siepi ed alberate campestri, popolamenti per migliorare la qualita di aria e acque, il recupero di aree degradate dall’attivita antropica , la costituzione di difese verdi di vario tipo, ivi comprese quelle destinate a potenzi...
Increased wood density is obtained by compressing the wood porous structure under suitable moistu... more Increased wood density is obtained by compressing the wood porous structure under suitable moisture and temperature conditions to improve its physical, mechanical and color properties. A recently proposed wood densification method based on partial removal of lignin and hemicellulose in hot water solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphite has shown promising results on solid wood. However, its applicability and effect on thin wood veneers have not been tested yet. In this study, the timing of the method has been adapted to estimate the densification treatment intensity dependence of wood properties (wood density and modulus of elasticity) and color change of softwood (Norway spruce) and hardwood (beech) veneers. Compared to control, density and rigidity increased, with improved wood properties peaking after only 90 s of treatment intensity. Furthermore, the color became darker after treatment compared to control, with no significant color difference between treatment intensitie...
Summary Several European species of Salix have been examined to test the presence of mucilaginous... more Summary Several European species of Salix have been examined to test the presence of mucilaginous cells in leaf epidermis. The mucilage deposits are extraplasmatic and located between the plasma membrane and the cell wall. They consist of a predominant microfibrillar component, PATAg positive. Since after selective extractions with solvents for both pectic substances and hemicelluloses the microfibrillar network proves to be only slightly modified it may be assumed that cellulose is a major component of the Salix mucilages. The possible ecophysiological role of the mucilage cells is briefly discussed.
Atti del Secondo Congresso Internazionale di Selvicoltura = Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Silviculture, 2015
Per promuovere la conoscenza e la cultura del legno fin dalla scuola primaria e secondaria abbiam... more Per promuovere la conoscenza e la cultura del legno fin dalla scuola primaria e secondaria abbiamo ideato alcune esperienze pratiche proporzionate all'età degli studenti, con l'obiettivo di fornire informazioni semplici ma scientificamente esatte. Tali attività hanno interessato sia gli aspetti botanici che tecnologici e applicativi del legno. Le attività didattiche sono state proposte ad alcune classi di una scuola primaria di Vittorio Veneto (TV), e a due classi quarte di una scuola primaria di Padova. Gli studenti della scuola secondaria sono stati invece raggiunti attraverso le edizioni dal 2008 al 2013 della mostra scientifica interattiva "Sperimentando", a Padova. In ambito universitario sono state messe a punto alcune specifiche procedure e apparecchiature per poter svolgere in aula le esercitazioni per il corso di Tecnologia del legno. La difficoltà nello svolgimento di questa tipologia di esercitazioni risiede soprattutto nella necessità di particolari attrezzature e nella lunghezza dei tempi tecnici. È stata messa a punto una procedura che riduce a circa 60 minuti il tempo di essiccazione di provini per la determinazione dell'umidità, utilizzando il forno a microonde. Per la determinazione della resistenza meccanica a flessione è stata approntata una piccola apparecchiatura che utilizza l'acqua come carico ed un comparatore centesimale per la lettura delle deformazioni. Parole chiave: didattica, tecnologia del legno, formazione.
E' stato seguito il processo di formazione dei depositi cerosi su foglie di salice bianco dal... more E' stato seguito il processo di formazione dei depositi cerosi su foglie di salice bianco dalle gemme dormienti alle foglie mature
Forest@ - Rivista di Selvicoltura ed Ecologia Forestale, 2020
Illegal logging and related illegal timber trade are currently recognized as one of the world's m... more Illegal logging and related illegal timber trade are currently recognized as one of the world's most pressing environmental problems. In several timber-exporting countries most of the trees are illegally cut, resulting in significant losses of incomes and irreversible damage to forests. In the last years several laws and regulations have been introduced to tackle global illegal trade of wood, such as the 2008 amendment to the US Lacey act, or the European Timber Regulation (EUTR). Professionals of the timber sector are therefore more and more called to a better knowledge of the material they are dealing with, and the identification of the wood species is one of the crucial steps necessary to verify timber legality. In this paper we introduce some recently developed tools aimed at facilitating non-experts to effectively identify wood through macroscopic analysis and possibly find substitutes for woods of uncertain legality.
Wood waste is a material that can be upgraded from an energy point of view. The purpose of this s... more Wood waste is a material that can be upgraded from an energy point of view. The purpose of this systematic review is to analysed the energetic characterisation of glued wood waste, in view of their use in combustion plants. To assess the compatibility of glued wood wastes combustion with sustainable environmental impacts, the main studies regarding their emissions during combustion process are reported. The results of the research showed a wide distribution concerning the emissions of the main pollutants. Carbon monoxide emissions, one of the main greenhouse gases, are considerably reduced by the use of efficient plants though the presence of adhesives does not affect CO emissions. The use of nitrogen-based glues instead negatively influences the emissions related to another group of monitored pollutants, the NO x. As far as SO x is concerned, emissions are low, favoured both by the low percentage of sulphur in woody biomass and by the non-use of sulphur-based treatments. The quality of combustion process also influences the type of produced emissions. The incomplete combustion leads to the formation of harmful compounds to the environment and to humans. The emissions of PAHs, dioxins and PCBs are generally higher for biomass than fossil fuels, but the presence of adhesives does not affect the emissions of these compounds. This indicates that, under optimal combustion conditions and eventually by mixing glued and virgin wood waste, the wood waste containing adhesives could represent an additional source of biomass for energy production.
The sensitivity and interest toward well-being and health inside work and living environments is ... more The sensitivity and interest toward well-being and health inside work and living environments is constantly growing. Wood is perceived as a natural material by people and its presence in a room generally induces beneficial effects on human beings. In this research, two real-sized identical wood and not-wood rooms have been built to study the psychological effects of a wooden indoor environment on attention recovery and restorativeness. After a multisensory evaluation of different kind of materials used in housing, participants were asked to evaluate the two rooms and then to perform an attention test two times, interspersed with a pause in one of the two rooms. The results show that wood samples are more appreciated than all other materials and that a wood environment induces an attentional resources’ recovery. These findings bring new insights in the interaction between human beings and indoor environments. This new knowledge should be taken into account in the design or renovation...
The bog oak is a particular archeobotanical oak wood, which is formed after hundreds of years in ... more The bog oak is a particular archeobotanical oak wood, which is formed after hundreds of years in anoxia and wet conditions. Following the persistence of oak wood for long periods in conditions of humidity and anoxia, its colour turns to dark brown/black, and its density and mechanical strength, in particular its hardness, increase. Wet and anoxic environments are, for example, the peat bogs of Northern Europe, and the muddy beds of rivers. In Italy, old oak trunks with a characteristic charred appearance emerge periodically during the cleaning of riverbeds. This paper presents the characterization of a bog oak log found in Zero river in the Veneto countryside. The trunk has been dated back to around 400 CE, using radiocarbon dating technique. The log is bark-free, and the black and cracked external surface has a charred appearance. On the inside, underneath the more weathered layer, the wood appears intact, without signs of apparent degradation, carbon black in colour. Towards the internal parts of the trunk, the colour of the intact wood goes from black to light brown. The physical characterization (basic density, shrinkage and maximum water content) indicates that degradation phenomena are also present in the apparently intact wood. Indeed, the bog oak linear shrinkage is more than double that of recent oak wood. Microscopic analysis clearly highlighted bacterial degradation. From the analysis of the ash content, it seems that the density increase of the apparently intact areas is due to the presence of inorganic material.
Nel corso del restauro della Sinagoga di Padova sono stati caratterizzati dei campioni lignei, id... more Nel corso del restauro della Sinagoga di Padova sono stati caratterizzati dei campioni lignei, identificando la specie legnosa; inoltre è stata datata una trave lignea strutturale
In accordance with sustainable economic and social development, Europe supports the use of energy... more In accordance with sustainable economic and social development, Europe supports the use of energy from renewable sources to decrease the use of fossil fuels. Among renewable energy sources, wood, especially production wood waste from the supply chain, represents an exploitable source in line with a circular economy development. In this context, processing of residues produced by wood companies becomes an important resource. This work deals with the possible energy recovery of glued wood wastes. Two solid biofuels were produced from glued wood wastes: pellets and briquettes. They have been produced in collaboration with a local company and analyzed according to the applicable EN ISO international standards. The results were compared with the limits imposed by the standards in order to identify their quality class and their applicability to the current market. The amount of adhesive present in the wood wastes does not negatively affect the intrinsic characteristics of the material tha...
This paper reports the results of the characterization of a subfossil trunk found buried in the m... more This paper reports the results of the characterization of a subfossil trunk found buried in the mud of the Piavon canal, at Chiarano (TV), when dredging took place in 2008. The trunk, of imposing dimensions, lacking branches and bark, has a black, deeply cracked and strongly deteriorated outer surface with a carbonized appearance, while internally it has the typical blackish colour of the so-called drowned oak. The studies have demonstrated that it is a tree belonging to the genus Quercus, common oak or sessile oak, that may have been felled between the end of the 12 th and early 14 th century A.D.. Determination of the MWC and residual basic density indicate that the deterioration decreases from the outside inwards; the ash content is high externally and diminishes moving toward the centre. Nowadays, the Piavon is an irrigation canal, but in Venetian times it was navigable and was used for the transport of goods and timber. There were extensive woodlands of common oak and sessile o...
Capitolo 1 di "I salici in selvicoltura, in agricoltura e nella tutela del paesaggio", ... more Capitolo 1 di "I salici in selvicoltura, in agricoltura e nella tutela del paesaggio", a cura di Paolo Paiero; testi di Cristian Bolzonella, Teresa Cerrillo, Rossella Ghisi, Margherita Lucchin, Mario Malagoli, Luigi Masutti, Paolo Paiero, Virginia Rossignolo, Stefano Tasinazzo, Tiziana Urso. Atti della giornata di studio tenutasi nella sede dell'Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali l'8 novembre 2007 Da alcuni anni a questa parte e in costante aumento la richiesta di materiale vivaistico destinato ad usi multipli (assortimenti legnosi, giardinaggio, ripristini ambientali, ecc.), per interventi dunque che non riguardano solo i classici rimboschimenti,ma anche la ricostruzione di cenosi particolari quali i boschi ripariali, l’edificazione di siepi ed alberate campestri, popolamenti per migliorare la qualita di aria e acque, il recupero di aree degradate dall’attivita antropica , la costituzione di difese verdi di vario tipo, ivi comprese quelle destinate a potenzi...
Increased wood density is obtained by compressing the wood porous structure under suitable moistu... more Increased wood density is obtained by compressing the wood porous structure under suitable moisture and temperature conditions to improve its physical, mechanical and color properties. A recently proposed wood densification method based on partial removal of lignin and hemicellulose in hot water solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphite has shown promising results on solid wood. However, its applicability and effect on thin wood veneers have not been tested yet. In this study, the timing of the method has been adapted to estimate the densification treatment intensity dependence of wood properties (wood density and modulus of elasticity) and color change of softwood (Norway spruce) and hardwood (beech) veneers. Compared to control, density and rigidity increased, with improved wood properties peaking after only 90 s of treatment intensity. Furthermore, the color became darker after treatment compared to control, with no significant color difference between treatment intensitie...
Summary Several European species of Salix have been examined to test the presence of mucilaginous... more Summary Several European species of Salix have been examined to test the presence of mucilaginous cells in leaf epidermis. The mucilage deposits are extraplasmatic and located between the plasma membrane and the cell wall. They consist of a predominant microfibrillar component, PATAg positive. Since after selective extractions with solvents for both pectic substances and hemicelluloses the microfibrillar network proves to be only slightly modified it may be assumed that cellulose is a major component of the Salix mucilages. The possible ecophysiological role of the mucilage cells is briefly discussed.
Atti del Secondo Congresso Internazionale di Selvicoltura = Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Silviculture, 2015
Per promuovere la conoscenza e la cultura del legno fin dalla scuola primaria e secondaria abbiam... more Per promuovere la conoscenza e la cultura del legno fin dalla scuola primaria e secondaria abbiamo ideato alcune esperienze pratiche proporzionate all'età degli studenti, con l'obiettivo di fornire informazioni semplici ma scientificamente esatte. Tali attività hanno interessato sia gli aspetti botanici che tecnologici e applicativi del legno. Le attività didattiche sono state proposte ad alcune classi di una scuola primaria di Vittorio Veneto (TV), e a due classi quarte di una scuola primaria di Padova. Gli studenti della scuola secondaria sono stati invece raggiunti attraverso le edizioni dal 2008 al 2013 della mostra scientifica interattiva "Sperimentando", a Padova. In ambito universitario sono state messe a punto alcune specifiche procedure e apparecchiature per poter svolgere in aula le esercitazioni per il corso di Tecnologia del legno. La difficoltà nello svolgimento di questa tipologia di esercitazioni risiede soprattutto nella necessità di particolari attrezzature e nella lunghezza dei tempi tecnici. È stata messa a punto una procedura che riduce a circa 60 minuti il tempo di essiccazione di provini per la determinazione dell'umidità, utilizzando il forno a microonde. Per la determinazione della resistenza meccanica a flessione è stata approntata una piccola apparecchiatura che utilizza l'acqua come carico ed un comparatore centesimale per la lettura delle deformazioni. Parole chiave: didattica, tecnologia del legno, formazione.
E' stato seguito il processo di formazione dei depositi cerosi su foglie di salice bianco dal... more E' stato seguito il processo di formazione dei depositi cerosi su foglie di salice bianco dalle gemme dormienti alle foglie mature
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